9/05/2007

Long TV viewing cause shorter attention span

We as parents know sitting too close to the TV is bad for childrens eyes, a new study show too much television may be linked to a bad attention span. According to this large long-term study, watching television more than 2 hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, an 40% increase in attention problems among heavy TV viewers (>3 hours a day). Symptoms of attention problems included short attention span, poor concentration, and being easily distracted.

The reason? Children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school or House work. To make things worse, young children who watched a lot of television were more likely to continue the habit as they got older, but even if they did not, the damage was done, the study said.

Another side effect of TV watching - unlike other activities that promote participation, such as reading, games, sports and play, TV watching is inherently lack of participation which might also condition children when it comes to other activities.

3 comments:

John A Hill said...

Perhaps this has much to do with the high rates of ADD and ADHD among children and young adults today.

As an entertainer of children (magician), parents and teachers often comment on my ability to hold their attention. Really, it has more to do with keeping things moving and changing and knowing how long is too long.

PS Hope you had a nice weekend. Missed your posts.

Numeric Life said...

John - my Labor Day weekend was great (NO TV), very busy at work on Tuesday.

Bilbo said...

I agree completely with John - TV is based on rapid-fire imagery and stories crammed into chunks between periods of advertising. I think this promotes a sense of believing things should move quickly, contributing to an inability to focus for the longer term. My daughter (who has become quite the MamaNazi with little Leya) is adamant that Leya will be exposed to as little television as possible. Lots of books and music, but minimum TV.